casa don juan.

The first time I went to Casa Don Juan, it was for a job interview lunch years ago. It was with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority and I had chile verde. It was good. That would have been a pretty funny job for me, huh?

The second time, it was meeting up with new girlfriend and her friends during a First Friday arts event, and it was a bit nerve-wracking but there were giant margaritas. Those were good, too.

But I was never really impressed with the food at this downtown cocina until I had an early dinner there last night. The chips were especially crunchy and corny, and the salsas, though a bit thin for me, were fresh and zingy. I ordered a rice-and-beans plate with a fully-packed shredded beef enchilada, a crisp beef taco and a hearty relleno. Everything was better than just good. The relleno, in particular, was interesting. The "crust" on the pepper was soft, spongy and warm, kind of like an omelet instead of some fried disaster, and it tasted of eggs but not in a breakfasty way. It was light and satisfying at the same time.

I will gladly take Casa Don Juan as my downtown Mexican restaurant of choice, ahead of the perfectly fine Dona Maria Tamales and the quaint but overrated El Sombrero Cafe.

mrkt.

As Aliante Station is the "little sister" in the Station Casinos family, more compact and less luxurious than Summerlin's Red Rock Resort, so MRKT will be the lesser known and appreciated sibling in Station's steakhouse roster. And this is not a surprise.

The decor in MRKT is stylish and sophisticated, with its oval glass bar, subtle colors and 5,000-bottle wine list. The service is just fine. The meat is just fine. But the menu and overall experience is missing the small touches that make a meal memorable and force you to come back. You can find those touches at Red Rock's T-Bones steakhouse, and I've had great experiences, if somewhat surprising, at Santa Fe Station's Charcoal Room. But it's just not meant to be at MRKT, the epitome of good-not-great. Where's the soul in this food? Drop the price on your $37 porterhouse, I say, and you may have a winner.

The two bar-top meals we've had here were good. Not great. The jumbo crab cake was pretty jumbo and full of meat, but under-seasoned and without any oomph. Butternut squash soup is terrific and served in a rather large bowl. Spinach salad with pancetta is a little overpowered by sharp dressing, and not as good as the chopped salad, that new steakhouse staple. The side dishes here are flat out boring and I don't want to order any of them. Bone-in New York, ribeye and grilled salmon, all okay. Everything here tastes good enough to tease. Maybe I'll go back to the Charcoal Room after all.

fooled by mgm grand. west wing = boo.

The MGM Grand website describes its West Wing rooms as "sleek," "stylish" and "modern." It reminds you there's a Bose radio in here. I'll describe my West Wing room as "tiny," feeling like a "space-age coffin," and equipped with a "broken telephone." And I'd like to remind you there's no fucking bathtub in here.

That's not to say that a weekend at the MGM was a total wash, or that a stay in the West Wing was uncomfortable. But in the pantheon of recently remodeled, modernized hotel rooms on the Strip, these are particularly unimpressive, especially since the rates for this weekend were about the same for a room in the Grand Tower of the same resort. The high points were the big robo-shower, a cozy bed and quick access to Las Vegas Boulevard without having to tromp through the entire casino (particularly important since we were back-and-forthing it to the Monte Carlo for two days). A room service order of bacon cheeseburger and Asian chicken salad at 3 a.m. was delicious but not easy to fully enjoy without enough space to afford the rolling food cart. Another low point was walking into the room for the first time and being greeted by the toilet before all else. "Design rules," says the website. Ha.

The West Wing bar (pictured) should have been a cool urban haven between the walkabouts, but in the daytime, thanks to the red glass doors that lead from here to the ultra-tacky Grand Canyon Experience mega-gift shop next door, this bar is where tired fat people go to die. The sandals-with-socks crowd, no doubt exhausted from Strip walking, sneak in here to find comfy couches and it's all over. Needless to say, this is not what you want to see when you come off the elevator, on the way to dinner, looking for a nice hip drinkhole. Fix this, MGM. All it takes is a big broom.

Elsewhere on the property, margaritas, taquitos, salsas and queso fundido are top-flight at Diego, the pink and somewhat forgotten restaurant at the back of the Studio Walk. Even better is the fried egg, bacon and bleu cheese sandwich at Wichcraft, one of the best hangover meals ever consumed. And the pool -- or more appropriately, collection of pools littered with spiked Slurpee distribution centers -- should get a good grade as well, even though there weren't enough spaces to lounge on Sunday. Despite this being the opening weekend for dayclub Wet Republic, the douchebaggery was minimal. With that egg sandwich in your guts, perfect spring sunshine on your body, and an orange frozen mess tasting of rum and mint in your hand, you really can't complain. The MGM has plenty to offer, but next time I'm sampling I'll get a suite.

it's not on fire.

Got a wedding coming up this weekend, and the out-of-towners have chosen the Monte Carlo as their headquarters. Room rates being what they are, it's a solid choice: mid-level resorts like this one, New York-New York, Luxor and TI are among the top Vegas bargains right now, offering up all-inclusive amenities, plenty of dining and drinking options, and proximity to other Strip action for a fraction of the cost seen in '08 or '07.

The Monte Carlo, currently operated by MGM Mirage, opened in 1996 and despite a vague European theme is better known as the home of cheesy magician Lance Burton and Vegas' longtime resident fancy French chef, Andre Rochat. (Now that his original downtown restaurant has closed, Rochat has Andre's here and Alize at the Palms.) In the last couple years, as nightclub operations like Pure Management Group and Light Group took over the Strip, the Monte Carlo has been touched up with more modern venues such as Brand Steakhouse and Diablo's Cantina, both operated by Light. And of course, the top floor of the hotel famously caught on fire in early '08.

Upon my post college return to Vegas, UNLV buddies introduced me to the Monte Carlo Brew Pub, which has always been a somewhat unexplainable draw for locals. The draft beer selection is fine, sandwiches and pizzas are okay, it's quiet when it needs to be and it hosts live bands most nights. If I'm making this place sound mediocre, you're welcome. Mediocrity is pretty much the theme here. The most exciting thing going on at the Monte Carlo is lunchtime at the food court, and that has nothing to do with the new selection of tacos at Rubio's. CityCenter looms next door, so all day long you can catch construction workers moving in and out on their breaks. As a 10-plus year-old hotel-casino, Monte Carlo is somewhat forgotten in the shadows of bigger and better, and it will be interesting (to me) to see what becomes of it when (ever) CityCenter opens.

Overall, skip it. As far as I can tell, the hotel rooms haven't been renovated as recently as ones at TI or Luxor. The sleek bar at Brand looks like a place I'd like to have a drink, so I think I will. Other than that, eh. I'm staying across the street this weekend.

jc wooloughan's irish pub.

Sometimes you just want a pint, maybe a whiskey, and some greasy bar food. And you want to consume them in a dark place made of wood, with a real bar, a place kinda stinky and maybe too loud. Sadly, as it is with all things authentic, most of the time in Vegas you have to find a fabrication of a joint like this instead of the real thing (unless you want to hit up Crown & Anchor). The closest fake Irish pub to my house is J.C. Wooloughan's, inside the JW Marriott resort just off Summerlin Parkway and Rampart.

Sometimes I get a craving to hit this place up, and usually I'm slightly disappointed. I think it's the fake part. It's always close, but not quite there. But the beer is never disappointing. We started off with a couple of fake Black Velvets, Guinness and cider instead of champagne, and moved on to the ultra smooth Snakebite, Harp and cider. With this one, you can easily and accidentally drink four or five.

I really wanted to walk out of here with the confidence to say they serve the best fish and chips in Vegas, but it just didn't happen. The deep fried pickles and potato skins we happily munched were delicious, but I remember the fish and chips being better. Perhaps the last time I ordered the dish was after many more drinks. That'd do it. But it's okay because there is better food to be had at Wooloughan's, including corned beef in sandwich form or with cabbage, a tasty version of shepherd's pie, solid burgers and fine Irish breakfasts. The menu is known as one of the more authentic in town, but to me this always will be a place for boozing on all things Irish, from car bombs to coffees, and other less foo-foo beverages as well.

the gold coast is good.

The Gold Coast opened at the end of 1986, less than a year before I arrived in Vegas. I doubt I'm alone in being surprised at that date; I'm sure lots of people thought it has been around a lot longer than that. This is because it is so consistently popular among locals. The Gold Coast really is the epitome of the locals' casino, the standard long before Station Casinos blew the whole thing up with super swanky suburban joints. I don't remember a whole lot about life as a sixth-grader, but I do recall going to the Gold Coast buffet with my family (My father had rather odd tastes when it came to choosing which buffet or coffee shop was worth regular visitation. He was a fan of places like this, the Village Pub in Desert Shores, the Sunshine Cafe on Vegas and Decatur, and the Rio coffee shop. Why? No one knows.) and occasionally bowling here as well.

It's very different now. The buffet isn't in the same place in the casino. But the casino looks exactly the same as it did through my 11-year-old eyes. In fact, the Gold Coast is keeping it real on a level you're not going to see very much anymore in Vegas. It's old school in here, right down to a spacious, red-and-gold, boothed-out casino lounge with drink specials, free bands and karaoke on Mondays. Check out the leather chairs in the casino bar between Ping Pang Pong and the Cortez Room. It feels like you're having a drink in Casino, waiting for Joe Pesci to come through and slap somebody.

Nostalgia is not the only reason to visit. I came to grab a quick lunch of sweet and sour braised shrimp, glistening and delicious fried rice and above average egg flower soup at Noodle Exchange, which, like the dim sum haven Ping Pang Pong a few steps away, is owned and operated by Kevin Wu, who knows what he is doing. (He also does Noodle Asia, at the Venetian, in case you are wondering.) These two restaurants are always full of local diners, mostly Asian, and serve food much better than you would suspect.

If you're new, you might not remember, but the Gaughan family used to run Coast Casinos, before Boyd Gaming came in and basically fucked them all up. For some reason, and I'm guessing it's Gaughan-related, there was always good Chinese food to be had at Coast properties. (Of course, Chinatown is very close to the Gold Coast, but these two restaurants give the neighbors a run for their money.) If there wasn't an Asian restaurant on property, you could go to the coffee shop and they'd have a full-on Chinese menu. The cafe here at Gold Coast was a great example. But now they've gone the corporate route with a TGI Friday's, which took over that space. The classic steakhouse, the Cortez Room, also is in a new location, where the Arriva Italian restaurant used to be (over by that cool bar).

What I'm saying is, I'm going to eat great Chinese food and drink cheap beer or whiskey at this old-school bar, and I'm going to like it. And if I can't make it out of the building, at least the rooms are super cheap.